Bank strike today: Why are unions holding nationwide protest, what are their demands | Explained

Banking services, especially at public sector banks across the country, were affected on Friday (11 September) after the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) called a nationwide strike.

The strike call issued by the UFBU, an umbrella body of seven unions representing 90% of officers and employees, did not affect the functioning of private-sector banks, PTI reported.

But most branches of public sector banks were either completely or partially closed as both employees and officers observed the strike.

All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam claimed nearly eight lakh employees, officers and managers participated in the strike.

The UFBU decided to hold a one-day strike on 11 September, and a three-day nationwide strike from 28-30 September. The union warned that if their demands are not resolved, an indefinite nationwide strike will begin on 26 October.

"The next strike will be on 28, 29 and 30 September, three continuous days. If it is still not solved, then from October 26 it will be a continuous indefinite strike," said CH Venkatachalamm, General Secretary, AIBEA.

What are demands of bank employees?

The union called for a nationwide strike to press for the immediate implementation of a five-day workweek and the resolution of pending wage-related issues.

According to the official statement by the UFBU, the unions have raised four main demands, which include:

1. Implementing a 5-day banking week; declaration of all Saturdays as holidays

2. Withdrawal of the government's performance-linked incentive (PLI) schemes

3. Modification of the incentive scheme through bilateral talks; a non-discriminatory incentive scheme for employees and officers

4. Resolution of remaining issues, including pension-related issues

Venkatachalam said the main demand is that the government should approve a five-day banking week, as reportedly agreed upon during the 12th Bipartite Settlement signed with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) in March 2024, but it is awaiting government notification.

The All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) said on 9 September that there were two rounds of online meetings. "There has been no concrete outcome on the Five-Day Work Week," the union said.

Meanwhile, the UFBU said on 8 September, “Today in the conciliation meeting, IBA & DFS informed that the Govt PLI scheme has been kept in abeyance & would be discussed with the unions. For 5 Day Banking, there was no positive development, so the strike is on. However, the Dy CLC has again kept a conciliation meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

What's the issue? Explained

Right now, two Saturdays (the second and fourth of the month) are holidays; the remaining Saturdays (the first, third and fifth) are working days. "We have agreed to extra working hours from Monday to Friday, and so we have asked for all Saturdays to be holidays," he said.

According to unions, banks agreed in principle to move to a five-day work week in 2015, when the second and fourth Saturdays were declared holidays. The issue was revisited in 2020 and later formalized through a wage settlement signed on 8 March 2024.

Under this arrangement, bank employees agreed to work an additional 40 minutes each day, Monday to Friday, in exchange for declaring all Saturdays as holidays.

The unions said the agreement was recommended to the finance ministry more than two years ago, but is still awaiting government approval.

Many also complained that working on Saturday has been impacting employees' work-life balance.

"The most important reason is 5-day banking...ur colleagues work hard day and night. This is impacting their work-life balance...We first demanded this in 2012. In 2015, under a written agreement, we were given two Saturdays off; 24 Saturdays in a year were given as offs...," said Kushal Gupta, Senior Vice President, All India Punjab National Bank Officers' Association (AIPNBOA).

Besides this, a union said in its statement that the government has also not honoured the agreement reached in 2020 to pay a uniform incentive based on the performance of a bank as a whole, ranging from 5 days' wage to 15 days' wage, depending on the bank's profits.

"The government came out with a revised discriminatory scheme which is based on individual performance and results in dividing the workforce," it added.

(With inputs from PTI)